ith Rose and her absolute
freedom; it also prevented them from suspecting that he still entered
the place. His visits were not many, but he could not bear to let the
dust settle on the furniture that he and Rose had chosen together; and
whenever he locked the door and went back to the River Farm, he thought
of a verse in the Bible: "Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the
Garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken."

It was now Friday of the last week in August.

The river was full of logs, thousands upon thousands of them covering
the surface of the water from the bridge almost up to the Brier
Neighborhood. The Edgewood drive was late, owing to a long drought and
low water; but it was to begin on the following Monday, and Lije Dennett
and his under boss were looking over the situation and planning the
campaign. As they leaned over the bridge-rail they saw Mr. Wiley driving
clown the river road. When he caught sight of them he hitched the old
white horse at the corner and walked toward them, filling his pipe the
while in his usual leisurely manner. "We're not busy this forenoon,"
said Lije Dennett. "S'pose we stand right here and let Old Kennebec have
his say out for once. We've never heard the end of one of his stories,
an' he's be'n talkin' for twenty years."

"All right," rejoined his companion, with a broad grin at the idea. "I'm
willin', if you are; but who's goin' to tell our fam'lies the reason
we've deserted 'em? I bate yer we shan't budge till the crack o' doom.
The road commissioner'll come along once a year and mend the bridge
under our feet, but Old Kennebec'll talk straight on till the day o'
jedgment."

Mr. Wiley had one of the most enjoyable mornings of his life, and felt
that after half a century of neglect his powers were at last appreciated
by his fellow citizens.

He proposed numerous strategic movements to be made upon the logs,
whereby they would move more swiftly than usual. He described several
successful drives on the Kennebec, when the logs had melted down the
river almost by magic, owing to his generalship; and he paid a tribute,
in passing, to the docility of the boss, who on that occasion had never
moved a single log without asking his advice.

From this topic he proceeded genially to narrate the life-histories
of the boss, the under boss, and several Indians belonging to the
crew,--histories in which he himself played a gallant and conspicuous
part. The conve